A Safer Cook County Starts with Us

• Eliminate or modify Safe-T Act
• Modify the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA)
• Mental health diversion programs without creating an arrest record
• More residential psychiatric facilities
• More drug rehabilitation residential programs requiring longer stays
• Re-instill basic discipline
• Revamp the Sheriff's Merit Board
• Create more objective disciplinary procedures for sworn staff
• Better pre-hire investigations
• Streamline discharge procedures when someone is ordered released from Sheriff's custody. 
• Work fairly and equally with all law enforcement agencies acting properly under the U.S. Constitution.

The listed bullet points are a partial list. The section is a bit lengthy because it is a shortened version of my position paper, so I did not want to add a lengthy bullet list:

I have been married for 35 years. My wife and I have four children, including a disabled grandson whom we adopted. In total, we have three grandchildren. I have been employed by the sheriff's department for 35 years, having married and started for the department in the same year, 1990. 

I am conservative. I am steadfastly against the SAFE-T Act and the laughably named 'Pretrial Fairness' Act, which was an amendment to the SAFE-T ACT, a bill approved by Democrats who never read the bill. They just signed under pressure from their party's liberal leaders. I am currently assigned to the office that ensures current cases have been brought to the attention of the appropriate court before approving any release. Due to the SAFE-T and Pretrial Fairness Act. I am forced to release repeat offenders, even after they violate the terms of their 'pretrial fairness' release conditions. 

Daily, I release individuals with lengthy, longstanding criminal histories, some histories exceeding eighty pages. Often, these offenders are being released after accusations of domestic violence, while having previous convictions for domestic violence, illegal weapons possession, and in some cases, having been accused or convicted of murder or attempted murder. We are releasing those convicted or accused of innumerable batteries, assaults, robberies, burglaries, and drug-dealing.  Many are rearrested and rereleased within days of their most recent release, and even worse, some on the same or next day after release. This cannot be how we keep Cook County safe.

I am told to ignore detainers from some law enforcement agencies, while being ordered to attach similar or like holds for other federal agencies. For instance, I am told not to attach detainers sent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless they are judicially signed. However, if I receive a non-judicially signed detainer from the U.S. Marshal, the ATFE, the United States Postal police, or local agencies, I am allowed to place holds. We should be working with all law enforcement agencies that are acting within the laws of our nation.

The Governor and the Chicago mayor falsely claim that crime has gone down. Data shows that ten-year crime trends are up. Data also shows that the statistics are unquestionably being manipulated to make crime look as if it is lower, when, in reality, that is not the case. This done, for example, by reporting a burglary as a theft., an attempted murder as a battery, and so forth. Not all crimes are reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who is responsible for gathering statistics for the reporting agencies. and not all agencies report their crime statistics to the FBI. 

The day that the Chicago mayor reported lower violent crime statistics, twenty-two people were shot in Chicago, and four died.  A few days later, fifty-eight people were shot and 8 died Chicago shootings: 58 shot, 8 fatally, in Labor Day... The Chicago mayor, along with the Governor, refused federal assistance, and recently, at least one person was murdered in the Chicago mayor's own neighborhood, all while the mayor prevented a local law incorporating enforceable curfews for young teens, who appear responsible for the violence Chicago police investigating homicide near Mayor Brandon Johnso….  Is this law enforcement in Cook County?

We are also locking up mentally ill or disabled people who do not belong in jail or prison. They belong in residential psychiatric facilities. Easily manipulated learning disabled or those with learning difficulties, are often groomed and manipulated by criminals, as seen in the documentary, 'Making a Murder.'  I complained about this in the last election. 

Suddenly, during election time, the Governor, released forty million dollars for mental health care, having ignored it and closed most mental health facilities prior to the election and my bringing awareness to the lack of residential mental health facilities available, and as was already somewhat known, also bringing attention to the fact that the Cook County jail was the largest mental health facility in the state. How does a jail being seen as the largest mental health facility help those not incarcerated to get help before they become law enforcement statistics? Further, drug addiction rehabilitation programs are far too short for reliable recovery and long-term abstinence.

The Sheriff's Department is also hiring poorly vetted individuals to become law enforcement officers. It is important for everyone to understand that the deputies assigned to the jail are just that...deputies. In addition to having correctional officer training, they are certified peace officers, with the ability and responsibility to take action in any police-necessitated circumstance. They are restricted in these responsibilities only by department policy, not state law. They also receive less training than necessary to be able to responsibly handle many situations, though if they do not act, they can be held liable by omission and be terminated. 

The Sheriff's Merit Board is not doing proper background investigations of those they certify for hire. I was told this directly by a Merit Board member. The Merit Board needs to be revamped, its responsibilities reexamined, and how members are appointed needs to be changed, as some receive the position as a political reward, not due to any qualifications. I want the deputy sheriffs, regardless of assignment, to have full arrest procedures training. I want arrest processing stations at the jail, as opposed to full authority peace officers needing to call someone from outside their ranks to complete or take over their arrest. This takes coverage off the streets and serves as a demeaning of the sworn officers who took action against an alleged offender. 

Street units not directly attached to the sheriff's police are not trained in felony stop procedures. When I was an Electronic Monitoring investigator, even though I was assigned to a street unit that responded to assistance calls, I was not trained on felony arrest procedures, handling domestic abuse calls, emergency driving, or pursuit driving. I have since been trained on all of these procedures, but received limited pursuit driving training. Further, I am an exception to the rule. I received the training only because I was selected to serve on specialized units and because I was one of the few who went through the police academy. This is not responsible law enforcement training, preparedness, or redundancy. More cross-training is necessary.

OPR investigators and Department of Corrections Superintendents are often hired with little or no law enforcement, investigative or corrections experience. When I was on the tactical unit, known as S.O.R.T., it was run by a plumber, not a law enforcement professional. The jail is currently run by a psychologist, not a law enforcement or corrections specialist.  I want to change these hiring practices. 

The sheriff's office recently hired and trained thirty new deputies. The working conditions and discipline applied by the administration are so terrible that 12 of those new hires quit at one time on the same day. after only one week out of their academy training. The working atmosphere is completely unprofessional, from timeliness to appearance to foul mouths. This lack of discipline leads to lackadaisical job performance and a belief that it is not necessary to follow or carry out lawful orders from supervisors. These policies are not enforced by supervisors unless they are threatened with suspension for not taking action. We need to change the working atmosphere and the department's culture.

The sheriff's department has weaponized 'Brady Doctrine' (Brady v. Maryland, 1963). This case was intended to ensure integrity among prosecutors. Yet, the doctrine has rarely been used against prosecutors and has nearly exclusively been used against law enforcement officers, who became part of the Brady Doctrine through its progeny, often when such use was not warranted. Further, the Sheriff's department puts deputies on their 'Brady list,' does not tell the affected deputy, and does not allow, or have a procedure for, due process related to the false attachments. This means many deputies are unfairly and incorrectly labeled as 'Brady cops, destroying their careers or advancement opportunities, if they are not terminated based on the accusation. Many states, such as Iowa and Arizona, to mention just two, have become aware of this abuse, and their legislature has passed laws to ensure fairness in Brady application. However, this does not exist in the sheriff's department or in Illinois, causing an unfair and never-ending form of discipline against the accused law enforcement officers. Such practices make officers hesitant to act for fear of unreasonable retribution, as currently occurs with many perfectly legal law enforcement actions and activities. 

The Sheriff's department has supply issues. It took me three years just to get new chairs for the Transportation office. I remember in older days when deputies were sitting on milk crates, even to drive a bus, because the bus had no driver's seat, and the department did not have enough buses. The transportation unit has 27 buses assigned. These buses are of poor quality and spend more time in repair than in operation. As of two weeks ago, only five of the buses were operational. No one asks the Transportation deputies what they need in a bus. No one examines the quality of reliability of the vehicles purchased, only the price. 

As can be seen from this relatively short list of issues, there are many problems within the Sheriff's department. I would like a chance to fix some of them. I understand this will be difficult in a County that cannot close its budget but continues to unconstitutionally give tax dollars to illegal immigrants who should not be here, and even legal immigrants are required to be self-sustaining and are not allowed to rely on public funds for sustainment. Yet, the Chicago mayor just ordered the Chicago police department to make $98 million in budget cuts to try to reduce its own budget deficit, while continuing to give millions to illegal immigrants.

Finally, I will say again that I am a conservative. My values and morals are from God and Jesus, my conservative father and stepmother, and my hometown. I am not a MAGA conservative. I am not a republican. However, quickly, unrealized by many, Illinois is about 47% conservative/republican. The state is consistently 'blue' due only to the horrible gerrymandering done by the Illinois legislature. If the congressional districts were fairly drawn, instead of having 14 Democrats and only three Republican/Conservative U.S. representatives, the state would have more along the lines of 9 Democrats and 8 Republican/Conservatives, and possibly one Republican/Conservative U.S. Senator. Keep that in mind when you hear the liberals complain about conservative gerrymandering. 

Finally, I am not a politician. I am a law enforcement officer who wants to bring back enforcement in law enforcement and make Cook County a safer and better place for everyone.

Sandefur for Sheriff